This Valentine's Day, Commuters Can Hail Women-Driven Autos With Sakhi In Bengaluru

Starting February 14, Bengaluru will have Sakhi Auto, a women-only auto ride service with female drivers behind the wheel and women passengers in the back. The initiative attempts to address safety for women commuting in the city. Drawing on her own experience travelling alone in Mumbai, founder Krishnavi Parekh created Sakhi as a women-focused ride service. Following a successful pilot run in January, the platform aims to tackle these safety concerns by hiring only women drivers and serving women passengers exclusively.

It has been established that transport isn't gender-neutral, and mobility restrictions disproportionately impact women's economic participation and personal freedom. Across the country and beyond, there have been initiatives to improve women’s mobility. Karnataka's own Shakti scheme, offering free bus rides to women on government buses since 2023, showed substantial improvement in women’s mobility. Delhi's "pink pass" program provides free bus travel to women and transgender persons. Luxembourg made all public transport free in 2020. Belgrade extended free buses, trams, and trolleys to all 1.7 million residents this January. Tallinn, Estonia has offered free public transit since 2013.

The economic case is well established. Women make more frequent, shorter trips with multiple stops, school runs, market visits, care duties, while bearing disproportionate shares of unpaid labor. Transport barriers are foundational to gender gaps in employment. 

What makes Sakhi Auto particularly relevant is its focus on auto rickshaws, ubiquitous in Indian cities, flexible in routing, yet historically problematic for women passengers. Women auto drivers remain rare in Bangalore, maybe 200 among the city's 1.45 lakh drivers. The International Labour Organization estimates that if women participated in labor markets at the same rate as men, global GDP would increase by 26%.

Sakhi Auto would operate from 6 AM to midnight daily with affordable pricing. The rates will be ₹50 for the first two kilometers, ₹20 for each additional kilometer, with no surge pricing during rain or rush hour. Fifty women drivers between the ages of 21 and 40 have been recruited for the initial rollout, and they'll keep their earnings in the beginning phase. There are plans to extend to 24-hour services depending on demand, and also to include trans women drivers in the future.

Sakhi Auto launches February 14, 2026 in Bengaluru. Follom Sakhi on Instagram here.

Bookings can be done via ride.sakhiwomen.in or via WhatsApp at 6361933364. A mobile app is under development.

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